"It has been emerging that the state government is heading toward total failure in the context of uncontrollable surge of corona infection in Bihar," a bench of Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Mohit Kumar Shah, which is monitoring the situation on a daily basis, said.

The state government should inform the court about whether a complete lockdown will be imposed in Bihar or not, it said, directing the government to submit a report by Tuesday.

"The state government has completely failed on tackling the pandemic. Why is the state government not taking a decision to lock down. The state government should avoid forcing us to pass an order pertaining to imposing a lockdown in Bihar," the bench told the Advocate General.

The high court has also asked the state government to form a war room and deploy five specialists to monitor the situation in Bihar.

Following the tough remarks on the state government, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday visited some places in Patna to assess the situation on ground.

The inspection tour of the Chief Minister has big implications. When he visited some places in Patna a week ago, he imposed evening curfew in the state from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sources have said that he might now take a decision on lockdown.